Powerless to Protect
by TheAngelOfLucifer
Summary: Ishida's lost his powers, Ichigo wants to know why. But Ishida can never accept pity from a shinigami, let alone Ichigo... And what will Ishida do when Mayuri enters his life yet again, and this time Ichigo seems to be his target? Please enjoy.


Authors Note:

Authors Note:

Samurai5725: TheAngelofLucifer and I are working on this story together. It's really exciting! Um yeah, but since we are doing this together…. We are mostly doing it for us. So I apologize in advance if anything doesn't make sense or whatnot. I can't wait to get to the slash-yness! I can guarantee you Ichigo and Ishida will /eventually/ get it on. Lol. Probably not in the M rating sense, but you never do know. All reviews are appreciated and I certainly hope you enjoy this story as much as I do! Let the story begin… after the disclaimer!

TheAngelOfLucifer: Hey ya people! How are you all doing? Well, this is my first attempt at a IshixIchi, though they are so cute together updates are going to be irregular on this one – it depends if both me and Samurai5725 are online at once, and due to English/American time zones, that's not easy! But we shall prevail. XD Anyway, hope you enjoy, and please drop a review off at the end, cos every review makes me grin XD

Disclaimer: Bleach and characters related belong to Kubo Tite and his crew. (Kubo Tite is God. You know it's true.)

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Chapter I: Fight or Flight

Orihime ran up to Ichigo, out of breath. He took in her slightly ragged appearance and put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, Orihime, what's wrong?" He asked with a worried expression on his face.

She looked up at him, panic evident in her eyes. "Ichigo, it's Uryuu, hollows are attacking him and-"

"Where is he?" Ichigo asked, cutting her off, Ishida was in trouble, he didn't need to know anymore than that. Orihime pointed, and then took off running, following Ichigo.

They arrived in the junction of two streets to see Ishida surrounded by a couple of hollows and not looking in the best of shape.

He stood, slightly stooped from the labour of his heavy breathing. Even from this distance, Ichigo could tell his cerulean eyes were darting this way and that, evaluating his next move. He could also see blood on The Quincy's face and arm. Suddenly he met Ishida's gaze, causing the Quincy to recoil slightly, his eyes widening.

Ichigo didn't spare the time to go soul reaper, instead he jumped between the hollows, barrelling into Ishida and knocking him out of the way of a hollow's attack. "Stay on your feet!" he yelled, rolling out of the way of another attack, before he leapt to his feet, pulling out his badge. "Orihime!" He called. "Grab my body when I go shinigami, okay?" She nodded with a determined look on her face.

Ichigo quickly spun around; however he paused to allow Ishida to get up. He knew Ishida would never forgive him for "saving" him, so he decided to wait and look like he just happened to be strolling by. His brow furrowed, however, when Ishida didn't summon his bow.

As he turned to question the Quincy's lack of action, one of the hollows patience ran out.

Orihime guarded Ichigo's body, looking at the pair fighting worriedly.

Ichigo angrily rounded on Ishida. "Would you stop fooling around and start attacking here?" He hissed, gesturing to the Hollows. Ishida merely shot him a glare in response and he sighed. "Well fine then." he growled, turning his attention back to the hollows. "I'll just kill em all. Suits me." He attacked one, easily smashing it's mask, then propelled himself off of that one onto the next.

The final hollow put up a, well to be honest, hopeless fight. One arm swept forward, but only served as a stepping stone for Ichigo to get within range of the white mask. As the Hollow disintegrated around him, he turned to Ishida.

Ichigo scowled at the Quincy as Orihime tugged at his body in the background, futilely trying to lug it over. He crossed his arms. "What's the deal, huh, Ishida? Those weak little hollows were practically killing you and you didn't even try to protect yourself. What, are you suicidal all of a sudden?" He glared harder, then sighed and went over to Orihime. He quietly thanked her for looking over his body and slipped into it.

Ishida simply glared, his mind in overdrive. 'How can I hide the fact I've lost my powers now?' he thought. Meanwhile, Orihime was walking over, noting the minor injuries Ishida had sustained (a couple of cuts to his face and arm, but nothing deep) as her hands flew to her hairpins, she froze.

"Ishida-kun... what... what happened to your reitsu?" She looked scared, as Ishida paled. Now there was no hiding it.

"I... Um..." Ishida stammered speechless.

Ichigo's eyes widened. "Yeah... what the hell, Ishida? Those hollows couldn't have done this kind of damage to you..." He glanced at Orihime, then looked back at Ishida, frowning darkly. "So what happened?"

All Ishida could do was stare in horror as his secret was exposed. He looked from Orihime's concerned face to the bemused Shinigami. He was slightly surprised to see genuine concern there too. Mixed emotions pulled this way and that in his heart, he finally understood the old saying of "fight or flight". Part of him wanted to stay and argue it out, but a tiny part of him wanted to explain to them, his first and only friends, just what happened. To tell them about Mayuri, to tell them about how a shinigami killed his sensei, the only person to ever show him compassion, not once, but twice.

But mainly... mainly he wanted to run. To get as far away as fast as possible. How could he accept pity from a Shinigami? No... How could he ever accept pity from Ichigo? With this thought in his mind, he stepped backwards. Ichigo picked up on the motion instantly.

Scowling, he grabbed Ishida's wrist. "Just where the hell do you think you're going? In case you forgot, we know where you live."

Orihime bit her lip. "Please don't be violent, Ichigo. I'm sure he has his-"

"Reasons, right? I don't care!" He paused then, thinking about it. His hand slipped from Ishida's wrist. "No, that's right. I _don't_ care. Whatever." Ichigo frowned and crossed his arms, turning away. "Well, see ya later, Orihime." Orihime watched him walk away, frowning worriedly.

Ishida watched him walk off. Again his thoughts were torn, part of him was glad Ichigo left, but part of him was... wait... was he disappointed because Ichigo just walked off? His heart skipped a beat. He was. He wanted Ichigo to at least yell at him... but to just walk away...

Ichigo sighed once he was around the corner and Ishida and Orihime could no longer see him. He punched a stupid fence. 'What the hell?' he thought angrily at himself. 'Why am I so mad about this? I don't care, so I shouldn't feel so... mad.' He sighed again. 'Maybe I'll go hunt down some hollows or something.' Ichigo ran the rest of the way to his home to drop off his body. Meanwhile, Orihime looked over at Ishida uncertainly. "Um..."

Ishida snapped himself back into reality, and looked at Orihime. He was at a loss of what to say.

"Um... Sorry about that Inoue-san it seems that I was unable to help you." He was right. 'What use was a powerless Quincy? I jumped into the fight when I saw Inoue in danger, but it was only after the Hollows had started to attack me that I realised I was useless. _She_ had to go running to Kurosaki to save _me_.' After realising this, Ishida span on his heal and marched off. He knew it was rude to walk away from Inoue like that, but he just couldn't stay there any longer

Orihime shook her head at Ishida's apology. "No... I... I should be thanking you for risking yourself to help me like that." She tagged along after him a few steps, then paused as it occurred to her that he might not want her around right now. "Um... see you tomorrow!" She called after Ishida. She felt she should at least heal his scrapes before he left, but figured she could tomorrow if they were that bad.

Meanwhile, Ichigo was hunting down hollows. None of them really stood any sort of chance against him. It was really quite pathetic, and after he couldn't find anymore, he still felt upset, albeit not as bad. He sat by the river where his mother died and stared at it, feeling upset but not really knowing why.

As the setting sun turned the river into a shimmering ribbon of gold, his wandering thoughts led him to wonder what Ishida was doing right then.

The soft rhythm was the only sound in the apartment.

Up, pierce, down, pierce.

This is why Ishida sewed - his mind was curiously blank when he settled into the pattern, watching as the patterns and fabrics seemed to construct themselves in front of his eyes.

Finally as the last shards of light descended over the horizon, Ichigo pulled himself to his feet. He trudged home, pulled himself into his bedroom through the window, and settled back into his body. He laid there a minute, before brushing his teeth and going to the bathroom. Then he flopped back onto his bed without bothering to change out of his day clothes.

He still felt troubled ... but slowly, little by little, his doubts gave way to sleep. Where they struck again. Ichigo's breathing quickened as he found himself back by the river, but this time the details seemed hazy, the edges blurred and surreal. With a jolt he realised he was dreaming.

Ichigo sat near the edge of the river wondering why he was here. He had spent enough time being bored here during the day, was he doomed to be bored here again in his dreams? He started as he heard footsteps behind him, and spun around to see Ishida approaching him. He huffed and turned back to the river. Ishida sat near him and was silent. Finally Ichigo, annoyed, asked "Why are you here?"

Ishida glanced at him. "There's this stage during a Quincy's training were they lose their powers for a while... Like a caterpillar going into a cocoon."

Ichigo glanced at Ishida. "So..."

He nodded. "Yeah, I temporarily can't use my powers. But I'll be stronger than ever before you know it."

Ichigo let a relieved smile spread over his face. "I was starting to think I'd left you in the dust, Quincy."

A strained smile broke out over the Quincy's face. "Leave me in the dust Kurosaki? In your dreams." There was a pause as the two boys looked at each other, then Ichigo laughed.

"So... " Ichigo said, looked back out over the river. "When you get your powers back... we should have a rematch."

He glanced over at Ishida who nodded. "Definitely."

Ichigo smiled then, and woke to birds chirping outside his window. He stretched and yawned, feeling relieved. "I hope that's all it is." he thought to himself while he got ready for school. "But then why wouldn't he want to tell me or Orihime?" Ichigo thought, his doubts starting to drag down his good mood.

The alarm clock bleeped a few times before it was stopped by the pale hand of the Quincy. He lay in bed for a few moments, somehow unable to pull himself from his bed. Ever since he'd lost his powers it felt like he had no energy, no drive. With a sigh he finally pulled himself from the warmth of the covers, and turned to face the new day.

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Thank you very much for reading! Please take a moment to review, any comments are egarly accepted.


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